NBA Game of the Week: 76ers at Cavaliers
Wednesday's Eastern Conference showdown between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers is an important one, as the winner will receive the head-to-head tiebreaker for playoff seeding. With only 15 games remaining in the regular season, playoff positioning is becoming more important to these two teams who are already most likely locks for the postseason.
Currently, the Sixers are in third place in the Eastern Conference, while the Cavaliers are right behind in fourth place, 3.5 games behind. Cleveland has a game on Tuesday against the Charlotte Hornets, while the Sixers will have two days off leading up to the game, giving them a rest advantage. It will be interesting to see how this matchup unfolds and how it will affect the playoff race in the East.
Even though the Sixers may have a rest advantage going into Wednesday's game, they cannot afford to take this Cavs team lightly, especially given their previous loss to Cleveland earlier in the season. The 28-point defeat was the Sixers' most lopsided setback of the season, so they will surely be looking to redeem themselves and climb closer towards that number one seed. It will be interesting to see if Doc Rivers and company can make the necessary adjustments to beat Cleveland this time around.
Cavalier's forward Jarrett Allen was ruled out for Tuesday's game against Charlotte, but the Hornets remain optimistic that he will be on the floor on Wednesday to take on Philadelphia. The strong part of this Cleveland team is their backcourt in Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, but the Cavs are going to need Allen and all their bigs to play a role if they want to stop Joel Embiid and the Sixers.
As for the Sixers they are as healthy as they have been in years. Their only injury is to newly acquired Jalen McDaniels who should be back soon if not for Wednesday night's contest.
Both of these squads are having a pretty good start to their month of March. Following this matchup, the Cavs will play the Wizards, Nets, Rockets, Hawks and Knicks before they enter their last four games of the season in April. For Philadelphia, its month will get a bit harder with matchups upcoming against the Hornets, Pacers, Bulls, Warriors, Suns, Nuggets, Mavericks and Raptors before they get to their last five games in April.
The 76ers and Cavaliers will tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 15 from Cleveland.
Sam Kirk is a third year broadcast journalism major at Penn State to contact Sam email sjk6325@psu.edu.
